Dusting off the old stones. Correlating old collections with new excavations: The case of "layer 2" of Coupe-Gorge (Montmaurin, France) - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Poster De Conférence Année : 2023

Dusting off the old stones. Correlating old collections with new excavations: The case of "layer 2" of Coupe-Gorge (Montmaurin, France)

Résumé

The Palaeolithic sites of Montmaurin (Petites-Pyrénées, France), are part of a karstic complex discovered more than 100 years ago in the frame of quarrying activities. Within these sites, Coupe-Gorge cave yielded a rich archaeological sequence, excavated by L. Méroc between 1946 and 1961, ranging from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Since 2018, a revision of old collections (mainly unpublished) and new fieldworks are conducted to better understand the Palaeolithic occupations (dir. A. Vialet). Excavations are focused until now on the top of the stratigraphy which corresponds to a layer attributed by L. Méroc to the Upper Palaeolithic based on few lithics described as Magdalenian and a few Châtelperron points. In her PhD thesis, C. Gaillard (1979) mentions also a possible Aurignacian. In 2022, a human humerus was unearthed from this layer. We present here a synthesis of the study of the collections for this level, the context of which can be clarified by the contribution of field data. Observations on fauna from the two sets are concordant and place the occupations between the end of MIS 3 and MIS 2, in line with pollen data showing an open landscape, established in a cold and dry climate. The cave was occupied by both carnivores and humans, as shown by traces on bones (breakages, cut-marks, gnawing...), DNA analysis and coprolites. On the other hand, the lithic material from Coupe-Gorge is unlikely to provide precise information, due to collect/conservation bias but also to raw materials employed (mostly quartzites). Indeed, if few pieces may suggest Upper Palaeolithic technological traits (blades or fragments), the main components remain undiagnostic. This study highlights thus the difficulty to interpret layers from this period with humans-carnivores occupations.
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hal-04040888 , version 1 (22-03-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04040888 , version 1

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Cyrielle Mathias, Nicolas Boulbes, Thomas Garcia-Fermet, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Anne-Sophie Lartigot-Campin, et al.. Dusting off the old stones. Correlating old collections with new excavations: The case of "layer 2" of Coupe-Gorge (Montmaurin, France). 3th Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists an Paleontologists, Mar 2023, Online, France. . ⟨hal-04040888⟩
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